Escape to Arpettaz
What gives an Alpine climb legendary status? Stats alone are not enough. A climb only becomes the stuff of legend once it has witnessed epic Grand Tour battles being played out on its slopes. It’s why Alpe d’Huez is arguably the most iconic of them all, and riders flock there to pitch themselves against it in an attempt to feel what the pros may have felt in those moments scribed in the history books.
It’s so easy to get lost in the romanticism of a classic climb that we often fail to realise that it is not always particularly pleasant to ride one. Alpe d’Huez is a case in point. It is usually quite busy and riding it means brushing shoulders with numerous other cyclists as well as the cars, lorries and coaches serving the ski resort at the top. The fug of overheating brakes and clutches lingers in the air. Nor is it a particularly pretty road, thanks to all the engineering work that was required to carve it into the hillside. The climb we are starting out on this morning is a world apart from all that.
The comparison to
